Not Wu Yize, Judd Trump or Ronnie O’Sullivan – snooker set for new world No. 1 | Other | Sport

He became the second-youngest winner of the World Championship, and with it banked a cheque of £500,000 for his efforts. It saw him shoot up the rankings as a result, with Wu now sitting fourth in the world after his triumph over Murphy.

Judd Trump had entered the tournament as world No.1, but a devastating second-round exit means he’ll most likely be checking his shoulder by the time the new season rolls around. That’s because snooker is set for a new world No.1, with last year’s champion Zhao Xintong expected to inherit the position.

Zhao has barely any ranking points that will need defending until the 2027 World Championship rolls around, and while he’s currently third in the standings, just behind Neil Robertson, he is poised to take top spot. Exactly when that happens will depend on his performance in the ranking events, as well as how Trump fares in the big tournaments.

The Englishman, whose form has been dire of late, won two ranking events in the 2024/25 season and reached a further three finals. But perhaps even worse than that, one of the tournaments he did win was the Saudi Arabian Masters – an event that has been wiped from the World Snooker Tour altogether.

Wu’s win is being described as another ‘changing of the guard’ moment in world snooker, as a new generation of players begins to take over. Much like his compatriot Zhao, Wu is being tipped to return to the Crucible in the near future and take at least one more world title.

But for the defeated Murphy, this year’s win was no surprise, given he’d tipped Wu to take one day win the Worlds earlier in the season. He explained: Murphy kept his head held high after the defeat though, saying: “I’d like to be the first to congratulate Wu Yize and his family, and everyone around him for being a wonderful world champion. I hate being right.

“I said sometime earlier in the season, we had a great game out in China somewhere, and I managed to win that one. I came out afterwards and said that he would be world champion one day.”